A review by brennanlafaro
Horrorama by A.S. Coomer, Lucas Mangum, Matt Harvey

4.0

Short story anthologies are cool and all, but collected novelettes/novellas? They are less frequent, but it’s a format that works for various reasons. Last year’s Lullabies for Suffering, edited by Mark Matthews allowed its authors to explore character deeper than the standard 10-20 pages of a short story allows. A very necessary component in a book that focuses on addiction and grief. Horrorama, edited by CV Hunt utilizes the longer form for a different reason.

Each story is meant to mimic a ninety minute schlocky horror movie. Maybe it reminds of you parking yourself in front of the TV on an October evening, letting the scrolling TV guide channel be your, well, guide. Maybe it reminds you of a drive-in double (triple, in this case) feature. From the stories themselves, to the cover resembling a VHS tape, to mock-ups of an old issue of TV guides within, everything about Horrorama screams nostalgia, and despite my best efforts, that draws me in.

The strongest in the bunch is the first, Store-All Self Storage, from A.S. Coomer. The first person narration and vivid descriptions of the narrator’s new job make you not want to touch anything because it’s definitely going to be sticky. From a dull and kind of strange new job to nightly happenings that get weirder and weirder with every day that passes, Commer winds up taking us to some very messed up places. Like the kind of movie, it sets out to represent, the story doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Primitive, from Lucas Mangum, gives us the group of friends on a getaway trope. We simply assume from page one they’re not all making it off the mountain alive. What follows is a gore-riddled creature feature with enough lore and character development to keep the reader turning the pages.

I had a bit more trouble getting into The Vessel, from Matt Harvey. A cult’s attempt to revive their dark god seems the perfect cap to a triple feature of this nature. Despite the subject matter, this last offering doesn’t offer up the same cinematic, picture-this-in-your-head quality as the other two. An enjoyable enough story, it just strayed from a well put together theme.